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THE POLICY OF EMANCIPATION. 



WORDS OF A TRUE DEMOCRAT. 



LETTER FROM ROBERT DALE OWEN. 



A STRONG WORD IN SEASON. 

We have not published, since the beginning of 
the war, a more significant or persuasive docu- 
ment than the following letter of Robert Dale 
Owen to E Stanton The style and tone 

of it indicate that it was not intended tor 
the public eye, having been sent some ten days 
ago to the eminent publie officer to whom it 
is addressed — an old friend of Mr. Owen's of many 
years' standing — in the unreserved freedom of pri- 
vate correspondence ; but coming by chance under 
the observation of several gentlemen of this city, 
they solicited a copy of it from Mr. Owen for pub- 
lication. He cheerfully complied with the request 
in the hope that his views might be useful to others. 

Mr. Owen is well known in this country as a 
gentleman on whom the democratic party has 
hitherto largely bestowed its confidence; he was 
for many years one of its representatives in Con- 
gress from the state of Indiana, subsequently our 
char at the Neapolitan court, and is 

now the associate of Judge Holt in the investiga- 
tion and settlement of complicated transactions of 
the government. In all his public trusts he has 
discharged his duties with fidelity, ability and 
honor. A careful observer of men and things, ac- 
customed to habits of impartial thought, he has 
studied the phenomena of our civil war without 
taking much active part in events, and the results of 

- idies we have in this brief letter to Mr. Stanton. 
Mr. Owen sees, what hundreds of other democrats 
had begun to see before him, that there can be no 
speedy, satisfactory or final termination of this war 
until slavery is, in some way or other, put in pru" 
cess of extinction. 

We are not authorized to speak for Mr. Stantou 
himself, nor for Judge Holt, nor for General Dix ; 
but if certain rumors that have come to us are not 
greatly exaggerated, we think we should not be far 
wrong in claiming for them a general concurrence 
in the reasonings of Mr. Owen. Be that as it may, 
we know that other leading democrats, no less emi- 



! nent than these, have been brought, by the expe- 
riences of the past few months, to arrive at tin 
conclusions. We know, for instance, that such men 
as Daniel S. Dickinson, Francis B. Cutting, ex-Oov- 
ernor Boutwell, Orestes A. Brownson, .General 
Mitchel, General Hunter, General Lew. Wallace, 
General Rousseau, General Dumont, General Coch- 
rane, and others of less note, make no conceal- 
ment of their convictions that the war must put an 
end to slavery or slavery will put an end to the 
Union. These men were all democrats. Could 
the old conditions of political parties be restored 
they would, doubtless, be democrats again ; but 
they are not democrats who refuse to be taught by 
events, or who, like the old Bourbons, never forget 
and never learn anything. They see that the out- 
break of a slaveholders' war has changed essen- 
tially the relations of slavery to the state, and they 
guide their minds, not by the old party traditions, 
or according to circumstances which have forever 
passed away, hut by the light of existing events. 

We of the North can no doubt whip the rebels 
by arms ; we can drive them out of Richmond 
into the cotton states; we can pursue them 
through the thousand swamps of the cotton states 
into the Gulf of Mexico ; it would take time 
and money and life to do so ; but we could do it 
all beyond a peradventure. But the Union would 
not be thereby restored. The same elements of 
discord would still exist; the same feuds would 
break out ; and no permanent peace or permanent 
harmony would be possible until the respective 
social systems of the North and South are render- 
ed homogeneous by the extinction of the only differ 
ence between them. We must go on fighting forever 
in this kind of desultory civil war ; or else we must 
form coterminous states of diverse civilizations, 
which would fight no less perpetually ; or finally, 
looking the problem right in the heart of it, resolve 
to restore the Union on the only basis on which 
after what has occurred, a restoration seems to be 
possible, namely, the establishment of free institu- 
tions and a free system of society in all the com- 
ponent parts. 



To tin- Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of 'War : 

My political antecedents are known to you. 
Always a democrat, but never a pro-slavery demo- 
crat ; opposed, in principle and feeling, from my 
youth np, to human slavery, but believing, until 
recently, that, in the interests of liberty itself, it 
■was the part of wisdom ia the North to abstain 
from interference with the danger-fraught do- 
mestic institution oi the South, and to trust to 
time for its eradication ; opposed, with a heredi- 
tary aversion, to war, I was willing, before the 
sword was drawn, to make any honorable conces- 
sions that might avert its horrors. 

But political convulsions bring with them great 
lessons and new duties. War would not, under 
the Divine economy, have been permitted, as in 
all past ages it has been, if it had not its mission. 
But to attain the good it brings we must recog- 
nise its necessities. 

No civil war of proportions so gigantic as that 
now raging ever existed in the world before. It 
differs from all others, both in the results sure to 
ensue from its protraction beyond a brief period, 
and in the conditions under which, out of evil, it 
may eventuate in good. Iu calculating these, time 
is an essential element. 

Seven or eight hundred millions are spent. At 
the best, as much more is likely to go. Two 
thousand millions or upwards is not an improba- 
ble total. That is half the national debt of Eng- 
land; and the interest on it (probably at almost 
double the rate she pays) will make our annual 
burden nearly equal to hers. It the war lasts 
three years longer, these figures may be doubled. 
It must not last three years longer, unless we are 
■willing to risk national bankrupt y. 

How is it to be terminated ? 

By concession ? That is no longer in our power. 
We can buy a truce, a pause, by concession to the 
South ; nothing more. 

By force of arms, then ? But if by force, it must 
be quickly done. Delay is defeat. 

And it must be effectually done. After one 
sueh war the nation may revive, its energies still 
elastic; solvent still, and respected. A second 
will ruin it financially, to say nothing of worse 
ruin. To save the country, then, the war must 
not terminate without a sufficient guaranty against 
its resumption. 

How can the war be quickly and effectually ter- 
minated? What guaranty is sufficient, that it 
will not be resumed ? 

Gradually, very gradually, as this contest pro- 
ceeded, have I been approaching the conviction 
that there is but one sueh guaranty : the emancipa- 
tion of negro slaves throughout this continent. 
Perhaps— but as to this I«am less certain — that 
measure is the only sure means of terminating, 
quickly and effectually, this war. The recent re- 
verse under General McUlellan, the scattered re- 
bel fires daily bursting forth in states which our 
forces had already overrun, the fact that we are 
figqting against brave men of our own race, all 
increase the probability that we must deprive the 
South of a legal risht to its four millions of labor- 



2 E+i 
,0/f 

ers, before we can succeed against their masters 
in a reasonable time and in an effectual manner. 

I am not an advocate of revolutionary short-cuts 
out of a difficulty. I am not in favor of violating 
the constitution by way of escaping a danger. 
There might be immediate advantage, but the 
precedent is replete with peril. 

Could slavery have been abolished, by northern 
action, while peace yet existed between the North 
and South, without a violation of the constitu- 
tion? in other words, without a revolutionary 
act? Clearly not. Can slavery be eradicated 
now, in war, without such violation ? If emanci- 
pation be necessary to ensure the permanent 
peace and safety of our government, and if we 
are willing to pay to all loyal slave-owners a rea- 
sonable price lor their slaves, clearly yes. 

For no principle in law is better established 
than this, that when important public interests 
demand it, private property may be taken, at a 
fair appraisement, for public use. The opening 
of a street in improving a city, the running of a 
railroad, are held, in this and other civilized coun- 
tries, to be objects of sufficient importance to 
justify what the French law cdls " appropriation 
forceepour cause (VutUtti piMique." 

But of importance how utterly trivial is the 
opening of a street or of a railroad compared to 
the preservation, in its integrity, of the greatest 
republic upon earth ! 

Ought we to declare general emancipation 
coupled with a provision for the payment, to 
all loyal slaveholders, of the fairly appraised 
value of their slaves? This question resolves 
itself into another : Have things gone so far that 
the Union, in its peaceful integrity, and negro- 
slavery within its borders, can no longer co-exist ? 

That is THE GREAT QUESTION OF THE DAT. I 

think it must be answered, even now, in the affir- 
mative. Every month that passes is converting 
hundreds of thousands of moderate and conser- 
vative and peace-loving men to the. same opinion. 
They despair of sectional friendship or national 
peace, until the teeming cause of mortal hatred 
and civil war is rooted out for ever. 

Have we the means of paying loyal slave-owners 
a fair price for their slaves ? If we act now, be- 
fore a protracted contest has exhausted our re- 
sources, yes. If we wait the termination of a 
three or four years' war, very certainly, no. 

In that price deportation must not be estimated. 
The South asserts that negro slaves are indispen- 
sable to her. That is only so far true, that she 
does absolutely need hired negro workmen, and 
ought not to be deprived of them. Her agricul- 
ture would, for a time, be ruined without them. 
But no good man desires a settlement under 
which any section of our country would be even 
temporarily ruined. 

Nor can it be doubted that the South, however 
strong her prejudices and traditions in favor of 
owning her laborers, has herself been brought, 
by the perils of the hour, to think seriously of a 
change of system as the only means left her to 
obtain aid and comfort from Europe. Nor can all 



her leaders be wholly blind to the fact that such 
a change of system would advance, iu the end, 
beyond calculation, her material prosperity. 

Suppose a declaration, tJ the effect that the 
government, urged by the necessity of self-pre- 
servation, takes, at a fair valuation, the slave pro- 
i perty of the South! Will such a declaration 
cause a negro insurrection and indiscriminate 
.assassination of whites throughout the Blave 
,' states'/ The result, so far, has clearly shown that 
1 the negro, mild and long-suffering, and often 
hed to his owner, is little dispose! to resist, 
«^under an organization of his own. Once assured 
coot freedom, he will gradually join our cause— that 
i- js all. He can then be hired as laborer or soldier, 
*-*as may seein tit — payintnt being made for him if 
Chis master proves to be loyal, and his services 
^obeing confiscated if these are due to a rebel. In 
all this we are clearly in our right. 

Look now at the question in its foreign aspect, 
under the chances of European intervention. Be 
those chances great or small, intervention may 
occur, and that ere long. 

If it occur, its character will chiefly depend up- 
on what shall have been the antecedent action of 
our government in regard to slavery. 

If, previously to such intervention, we shall 
have issued a general declaration of emancipation, 
then we shall stan 1 before Europe as the cham- 
pions of human liberty, while our enemies will be 
regarded as the advocates of hum in servitude. 
Public opinion iu England, in Franca and through- 
out Europe, generally, will then prevent the re- 
spective governments from intervening, except it 
be in our favor. No European government dare 
place itself in the attitude of a slavery protector. 
If, on the contrary, we shall have left the issue 
as it now 6tands, our policy indicated only by the 
Confiscation acf, not broaily and boldly announ- 
ced, and more especially if the South, despairing of 
saving her favorite institution, concedes, as the 
price of foreign recognition and support, a volun- 
tary system of gradual emancipation — not at all 
an unlikely move — then the sympathy of public 
opinion throughout Europe will be with the 
South, and will sustain any action in her favor. 

Think, too, in such an event, how false our po- 
sition ! how low we shall have fallen in the eyes 
of the world ! how unenviable the place we shall 
occupy in history through all time ! 

It is idle gasconade to say that, thus situated, 
we can defy Europe. Let the Soutb, by conced- 
ing emancipation, secure the sympathy and the 
permanent services of her four millions of labor- 
ers, without action of ours; then throw into the 
scale against us .the thirty millions of Er, 
the forty millions of France, — and who shall say 
how many tens of millions besides '? — and what 
chance for success, or tor reputation, shall we 
have, struggling for nothing nobler than self-ex- 
istence, in equivocal attitude before the world, 
matched against opponenls who shall have fore- 
stalled us and assumed the initiative of progress ? 
While the contest assumes no higher character 
than that of a portion of a great nation desiring 



a separation from the mother country and forcibly 
casting off its authority, what more sympathy can 
we expect from Europe than we ourselves gave to 
Spain when she lost Mexico, or to Mexico when 
Texas struck for independence ? Until the ':- 
is changed, so that the great question of human 
liberty becomes involved in it, we must expect 
from European powers at the best only indiffer- 
ence; coupled, probably, with the feeling that as 
Mexico succeeded against Spain and Texas against 
Mexico, so will a Southern Confederacy finally 
maintain itself against us. 

That a declaration of emancipation was not 
issued a year ago, 1 do not regret. Great changes 
must mature iu public opinion before they can be 
safely carried out. Extreme measures, to be just- 
ified and to be effectual, must often be preceded 
by long-tried conciliation. Yet in national emer- 
gencies it may be as dangerous to disappoint as 
to anticipate public opinion. And I confess my 
fears for the result if decisive measures are longer 
delayed. 

Stand where we are we cannot ; and to go on is 
less dangerous than to retrace our steps. We 
ought never to have proposed emancipation with 
compensation to loyal slave-owners, nor declared 
to the disloyal, as by law we have, that their slaves 
shall be liberated without compensatiou, if -we 
did not intend to follow out the policy we com- 
menced. We have incurred the odium ; let us 
reap the beueiit. 

Nor do I perceive how we can free the slaves of 
rebels, yet reasonably expect to retain slavery in 
the border states, even in case they persist in re- 
fusing the offer of the President. Having inter- 
vened so far, extirpation of slavery, the only 
effectual policy, becomes the safest also. 

All men in the North will not acquiesce. Nei- 
ther did all aci|ulesce wheu the war was com- 
menced ; yet who that is loyal opposes it now ? 
And what would have been the result had we 
waited, ere we commenced the war, for unan- 
imity ? 

Some will fall off. So be it ! There is small 
loss in that. And there is some gain. Better an 
open enemy than a worthless friend. It is time 
that men were taking sides. As things now stand 
I see no use in conciliating the half-loyal. He 
who is not for us is against us. 

I think the people are ready. I believe that the 
loyal citizens of the North, with such small pro- 
portion of exceptions as in radical national 
changes must be disregarded, are to-day prepare! 
tor emancipation. They have paid for it in 
treasure, in blood; not by their option. They 
feel that the sacrifices they have made, and have 
still to make, are too vast to have been incurred, 
except in purchase of a great pledge of perpetu.l 
safety and peace. 

Reflecting men feel, too, that such a pledge is a 
national, not merely a northern, necessity. The 
South, exhausted and Buffering, needs it to the 
full as much as we. She will soon perceive, if she 
does not already, that two parts of one nation, or 
even two coterminous nations, can never again 



exist iii amity on this continent, one 'slave and 
the other free. She cannot but see that iugitive- 
slave-law difficulties, if no others existed, would 
suffice to prevent this. 

It is not the question whether a paper declara- 
tion, easily issued, will or will not be followed by 
a thousand practical difficulties. The uprooting 
of an ancient and gigantic abuse always involves 
such. Nor should we be called upon to predict in 
advance (for who can entirely foresee '?) how each 
of these will ultimately be solved. The true 
question is, whether greater difficulties, even in- 
superable ones, do not beset any other policy. 
Pressed home as we are, to avoid obstacles is 



impossible. We can but select the least formida- 
ble. The lives of the best of us are spent in 
choosing between evils. 

When dangers surround us, we must walk, in a 
measure, by faith. Let us do what we can, and 
leave to God the issue. We may best trust to 
Him when we enter His path of progress. He 
aids those who walk in it. 

I feel assured that final success awaits us in 
pursuing such a path. And I see no other road 
out of the darkness. 

Robert Dale Owbn. 

New York, July 23, 1862; 

. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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